Page:A book of folk-lore (1913).djvu/206

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PIXIES AND BROWNIES
208

and Sagas. An Alvismal or poem of the Elf has been preserved from pagan times. It is true that the small people never penetrated to Iceland, but the Icelanders brought away with them to Iceland the traditions, songs, stories and superstitions of Norway, from which they emigrated.

According to the testimony of several sagas, there dwelt in Sweden, in remote times, a gigantic, wild race called Jotuns; but when the Scandinavians arrived there arose between them and the Jotuns a war that lasted for many centuries. At last these were driven into the forests and mountains, and away to the frozen north about the Gulf of Finland, which thenceforth was called Jotunheim. These, I can hardly doubt, were the builders of the rude stone monuments in the south of Sweden, in Denmark, and in Jutland that possibly still retains their name.

But there was a distinct species of Mountain Trolls, or Dwarfs. These were good mechanics and cunning, their wives and daughters were often beautiful. ‘This Dwarf race,’ Mr. Thorpe thinks, ‘seems to spring from a people that had migrated from the Eastern Countries at a later period, as they were acquainted with names which they